Science Weekly podcast: unmasking the unconscious mind

American author and physicist
Leonard Mlodinow explains his book Subliminal about the hidden machinations of the unconscious mind, and
Mike Paterson introduces his project 94 Elements to create films inspired by the periodic table

A man stares intently with his fingers on his temples. Photograph: Alamy

Mlodinow discusses the profound ways in which many of our everyday actions are dictated by the unconscious mind, and why the intriguing question is not why we are unconscious of so much of what goes on in our brains – but rather why we have any consciousness at all.